GS-01 / APPLIED AI SYSTEMS

Applied AI consulting for small and mid-market businesses.

AI built for practical businesses and original thinkers.

Guidance Systems was created for businesses that need practical AI and original thinking. The practice combines systems engineering, commerce experience, software craft, security awareness, and a belief that real-world engineering is as much art as science.

Founded by the Chief of Guidance and Propulsion at Rocket Web, Guidance Systems brings a disciplined but creative approach to applied AI.

Map Your Mission →Explore the Practice

Homeroom

Development pilot / MCP integration

From a conversation to a learning plan.

We're developing a connection between compatible AI assistants and Homeroom, a homeschool planning application. Parents can research curriculum and prepare learning plans, then review, correct, and apply them inside Homeroom.

Model Context Protocol (MCP) gives the assistant a controlled way to work with the application. Homeroom holds the records and enforces what can change.

Customer's AI subscription

Research + propose

Discuss the curriculum, calendar, and workload with a compatible assistant.

AI usage runs through the customer's subscription.

Homeroom / parent control

A private draft

  1. Review + correct
  2. Preview exact changes
  3. Confirm Apply

The approved plan becomes part of the parent's Homeroom records.

For this MCP workflow, Homeroom pays no AI inference fees. The customer uses their own AI subscription, with that provider's usage limits.
Traceable curriculum
Published editions and lesson outlines stay attached to catalog-backed plans. Sources are checked before Apply; custom lessons are identified separately.
Private child selection
Parents choose the child inside Homeroom. Permission to prepare a draft gives the assistant a limited task handle, without access to study history.
Review before changes
Parents correct the draft and inspect an exact preview. Applying the plan requires a separate confirmation inside Homeroom.
History and recovery
Corrections preserve earlier versions. Retries avoid duplicates, and rollback checks protect later edits and dependent work.
Enforced permissions
Restricted services, encrypted drafts, and family access checks enforce the boundaries in the application and database.
Compatible assistants
Homeroom keeps the records while a compatible assistant helps with planning. Each provider connection needs its own acceptance checks.

Development testing covers synthetic drafts, corrections, preview, Apply, rollback, and family access checks. Production availability and provider acceptance require separate verification.

GS-02 / BEYOND AUTOMATION

AI should help your team think, not just move faster.

Automation is one use of AI. The larger opportunity is guidance: systems that help your team see patterns, pressure-test ideas, generate options, prototype faster, and make better decisions with more context.

Guidance Systems works with practical businesses to design AI around the way work actually happens: the people, the workflows, the data, the constraints, and the decisions that matter.

The goal is not AI theater. The goal is useful guidance.

GS-03 / METHOD

Observe. Model. Prototype. Guide. Calibrate.

AI systems do not become useful in a vacuum. They become useful through feedback, judgment, measurement, and iteration. The Guidance Loop is our operating model for turning AI from a vague possibility into something your business can use.

01ObserveUnderstand the business, workflows, users, constraints, and signals.
02ModelMap the decisions, knowledge flows, data sources, and AI opportunities.
03PrototypeBuild the smallest useful version so the idea can be tested in real work.
04GuidePut the system into the workflow with humans still in the loop.
05CalibrateMeasure, tune, document, and improve based on real use.

GS-04 / SERVICES

Applied AI consulting from first map to working system.

Guidance Systems can help you find the right opportunity, prototype the idea, deploy the system, and train the team that will use it.

GS-04.1 / MISSION MAP

Find the AI opportunities worth building.

Find the highest-value AI opportunities in your business before you invest in tools, platforms, or implementation.

Start with Mission Map →

GS-04.2 / GUIDANCE LOOP

AI as a strategic thought partner.

A recurring advisory relationship for leaders who want to use AI as a thought partner for decisions, strategy, and creative problem solving.

Explore Guidance Loop →

GS-04.3 / PROTOTYPE BAY

Turn one opportunity into a working build.

A focused build sprint that turns one business-specific AI opportunity into a working prototype your team can test.

Build a Prototype →

GS-04.4 / FLIGHT SYSTEMS

Deploy AI into the real workflow.

Implementation support for deploying AI tools, workflows, integrations, documentation, and feedback loops into the real business.

Deploy a System →

GS-04.5 / CREW TRAINING

Teach the team to work with AI well.

Practical AI enablement for teams: better prompting, better critique, better workflows, safer usage, more creative collaboration.

Train the Team →

GS-04.6 / SECURITY OPS

Catch suspicious activity before it costs you.

Operational visibility through SquirrelOps: deception, canaries, suspicious behavior detection, and signal-over-noise thinking.

Explore SquirrelOps →

GS-05 / APPLICATIONS

AI systems built around real business work.

The best AI opportunities are often hiding in ordinary workflows: proposals, support, research, operations, customer conversations, inventory logic, sales enablement, reporting, and internal knowledge.

  • AI opportunity mapping
  • Internal knowledge assistants
  • Proposal and sales enablement systems
  • Customer support triage
  • Workflow automation with human review
  • Research and synthesis systems
  • AI-assisted reporting and dashboards
  • Ecommerce and operations analysis
  • Decision support tools
  • AI training for leadership and teams
  • Security signal and deception systems
  • Workflow risk and review systems

GS-07 / FIELD NOTES

Field notes from the practice.

Short essays on applied AI, systems thinking, practical workflows, and creative engineering.

GOVERNANCE

Open Weights Are the Wild West. Vet Every Layer.

How to vet local AI runtimes, models, licenses, and agents, with release-level license checks and corrections from Kip Boyle on indemnification and SOC 2.

9 min · 2026.09.03

EVALUATION

Opus Fails with Complex Constraints

Opus 5 and Sol 5.6 look neck and neck on coding benchmarks. ComplexConstraints exposes a 13.2-point instruction-following gap and makes the case for a model-agnostic harness.

4 min · 2026.08.20

FRONTIER

What Happens When Uncertainty Gets Its Own Chip?

AI made production cheap while human attention stayed scarce. Extropic is building probabilistic hardware for the inference work on the other side: filtering uncertainty and deciding what deserves attention.

10 min · 2026.08.14

Read all Field Notes →

GS-08 / START

Ready to build your guidance layer?

You do not need a polished AI brief to begin. A messy business problem is a good place to start.

Start with a Mission Map →Send a Note